another $30 billion for 'homeland security.' The USA has a quarter of a million

forces in more than 33 countries. This is part of a system for global

governance with centralized control by whoever controls the White House. Congress has

ceased to check or balance the power of the Executive.

In the Middle East, US vetoes blocked UNO resolutions that would have

separated Israelis and Palestinians, then blocking a UN fact-finding mission to Jenin

after its devastation by Israeli forces in 2002. Can war and peace be left to

a United States government that treats Israel as its closest ally?

The bias of American policy is clear, with George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and

Dick Cheney advised by pro-Israelis Paul Wolfowitz, Dov S. Zakheim, and Richard

Perle; when Richard Haass, who directs the State Department's policy

planning staff, is described by journalist William Safire as "Colin Powell's

long-range thinker," and Douglas Feith, under secretary of defense for policy, has

publicly criticized Palestinian leaders.

The Bush Mideast policy is unjust, un-Christian and un-American. Unjust

because it supports an oppressor against the oppressed. Un-Christian because it is

unmerciful-starving the people of Iraq for a decade by stopping trade, and

supporting secessionist and assassination movements, contrary to international

law and the UN charter. Un-American and unpatriotic because this government's

policy goes against long-term American interest and the sage advice of the

founding president of the United States in his Farewell Address to future

generations-to US.

"Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another

cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to

veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may

resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious,

while tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to

surrender their interests."

The injustice of American imperial policy is creating the dynamics for an

East-West antagonism that money will not lubricate away nor arms destroy. In our

own country and abroad, there is the prospect of perpetual war against

protesters, labeled potential "terrorists," and the surrender of our liberty for

"safety.

Britain and the United States are responsible for the losses that the

Palestinians have sustained, and for Zionist Jews gaining territory, homes and

property of the Palestinians who became refugees. Both countries pledged in the

Balfour Declaration, and the Mandate proclaimed on Sept. 11, 1922: "It being

clearly understood that nothing shall be done which should prejudice the civil and

religious rights of Christians and all other non-Jewish communities in

Palestine, and the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall

be adequately protected."

Britain and the United States carried out their pledge to the Jews, but

failed to perform or honor their pledge to "Christians and all other non-Jewish

communities in Palestine." They are liable and have resulting obligations as have

the named beneficiaries, "the Jewish people."

How can damages be assessed for losses sustained in breaches of an

international obligation, treaty, or contract? How can payment be assured?

To assess reasonable payments from Britain and the United States, and from

Israel the beneficiary of Palestinian dispossession and destruction of

thousands of Arab homes and farms, and hundreds of Arab villages for example, one

might consider the $200 billion that Israel has received in different forms from

the United States, since its founding.

A good basis could be $200 billion each from Britain, America, and Israel,

payable over ten years.

This would go with Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders, rather than those

of the original UN partition plan. Enforcement could be assured by the

possibility of boycotts by the international community of UK, United States and

Israel, with the precedent of the Jewish boycott of Germany from March 1933.

This should be in a context of a return of the Golan Heights to Syria, and

normalization of relations with Iraq, and recognition of its rights of

sovereignty and possession of weapons for self defense. *

© 2002 A NEW ENLIGHTMENT FEATURE

In his foreword to The Palestine Diary, Arnold Toynbee, the outstanding

historian of the 20th century, wrote, "I hope this book will be widely read in the

United States, and this by Jewish and non-Jewish Americans. If the American

Government were constrained by American public opinion to take a non-partisan

line in Palestine, the situation in Palestine might quickly change for the

better." John K. Cooley, Middle East Bureau, The Christian Science Monitor, wrote

"It is a most illuminating and useful book. It should be in universities and

libraries, and especially in the hands of historians, throughout the world."

David W. Littlefield of the Library of Congress wrote in the Library Journal,

"this is not a personal diary, but the most detailed history available of the

Palestine problem . . .the book is so detailed, and the quotations and

footnoting of the sources is so extensive that it is a valuable aid to researchers."

Dr. John is a member of The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, Inns of

Court where he studied Law. He is also a member of the Organization of

American Historians, and The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations,

[1] In World War II, Dr. John’s brother volunteered for the B.E F. in France

in 1939, volunteered to command in Waziristan, N.W. Frontier, India, was

wounded twice in action against the Afrika Corps. in North Africa and the 1st

German Parachute Div. at Monte Cassino. His cousin Alain John volunteered from

King's Cambridge for the Royal Air Force and was killed-in-action at age 23,

but a sculpture that he made at age 17 is in Coventry Cathedral as a war

memorial to members of the R.A.F In WW I, his uncle, Lt. Col. J.C. John, fought on

the Western Front and volunteered for Dunster Force that freed Mesopotamia

from Turkish rule; in WW II he was Acting Major General commanding in Behar

and Orissa., India.

++++++++++++++++

"Many rabbis and professionals have told me recently that they fear for their

jobs should they even begin to articulate their doubts about Israeli

policy--much less give explicit support to calls for an end to the occupation."

-- Rabbi Michael Lerner

April 28, 2002 in the Los Angeles Times